A location tracking system is used for tracking a location of a person or an asset within an area, such as a hospital, a logistic hub for example. Current technologies used to implement a location tracking system involve the use of a signal timing analysis such as a Global Positioning System (GPS) or having a network of receivers to detect a beacon signal.
The GPS is normally used for providing location data in open areas rather than in an indoor environment such as an interior of a building. In addition, hardware required for the GPS implementation is relatively costly and therefore may increase the cost of implementation.
An indoor tracking environment can instead be covered by a network of radio frequency (RF) receivers. Personnel and assets are attached with mobile RF transmitters which transmit beacon signals. Trilateration or triangulation, based on Time of Arrival (TOA) or Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), can then be used to obtain the location of the tracked personnel or asset. Such methods are computation intensive and are therefore also not desirable.
Infrared receivers and transmitters can be used in place of RF receivers and transmitters. Infrared signals provide a very good room based localization as infrared signals cannot penetrate through walls. However, the infrared transmitter can be easily obscured and this will result in the loss of the beacon signal.
Therefore, there is still a need for an improved location tracking system and method which can reduce the manpower, time and resources required to keep track of personnel and assets.